Mental Health over Christmas: Tazmin

It can be hard to put yourself first sometimes, especially at Christmas. Tazmin talks about how she prioritises self-care, and deals with the pressures of gift-giving.

- Tazmin

1.  What do you enjoy most about the winter holiday period?

I love that it gives you a chance to connect with the people in your life, friends and family alike, who you may not have seen in a while. I always find that it’s the perfect time to catch up with old friends from school and college, and make new memories with your family. It’s also an opportunity to slow down from the busy world, which can get busier during the winter holidays, and connect with yourself – relax inside, cosy up with a good book or movie and have some time with you. It’s a very cosy period of time and there’s nothing better than a warm snuggle with yourself.

2.  What do you find most difficult during the holidays?

I find the pressure of the festivities slightly overwhelming in terms of finances and expectations. I struggled with money all through university and even though I’ve just graduated this is still no exception. Being surrounded by advertisements, Christmas markets, even daily emails surging into my inbox, I can feel a great deal of pressure to buy gifts for the people I love. I also feel like I’m a bad person if I don’t – but for someone who is in a difficult financial situation and trying to get out of it, this added stress must be ignored and put to one side. I try to remind myself that there’s more to this festive period than gifts and if the people in my life fail to understand that, it speaks more of them and nothing of me. This holiday is about spending time with people you love, playing in the snow like children again, laughing and enjoying the company of yourself. Spend time to reflect on the year and all you have achieved, rather than thinking you’ve come up short.

3.  Taking some time out from all the festivities to look after yourself can be really helpful. What do you do to help your mental health during the holidays?

The world is a busy place, especially during university, and there are always so many deadlines fast approaching or just flying straight past. Friends to see and catch up with, and family engagements to participate in. But sometimes it’s nice – and necessary – to have some time out: sit back, get cosy, and enjoy being you for a little bit. It can be truly uplifting for your well-being to be surrounded by people who you care for and love, but I’ve often found that once you’re on your own again the contrast can bring you down. Make time to bond with yourself in the ways that make you happy; like I’ve said before, I make friends with myself by getting cosy after a good day and spending the evening along with a great movie that I love, usually The Muppets Christmas Carol!

4.  What present would you give yourself over the holidays?

I think the gift I would give to myself over the holidays is a meditative retreat somewhere beautiful in the world such as Spirit Rock in California; a chance to spend some time with myself, heal, and go on an adventure to see another part of this wonderful world.

6.  What are your New Year’s Resolutions?

I understand the concept of New Year’s resolutions, that they can motivate people to change their lives or lifestyle for the better in the next year ahead. However, I make new resolutions whenever I feel the need for them to be made. I think waiting for the New Year to make a resolution prevents it from really coming true. If there’s something in your life you want to change, never wait – just do it. For example, if you are a smoker and say you’re going to quit smoking in the New Year, don’t carry the bad habit on until then, just start quitting now. Waste no time waiting. Do what needs to be done to ensure you’re happy now and for the future.


If you would like to get involved in our Christmas blogging series, you can find all of the details here.

Hey everyone, I’m Taz. My journey suffering with depression and anxiety has been and can continue to be a difficult one; but I would not be who I am today had I not accepted my illness and work hard to get better. I have recently graduated from Sheffield Hallam University with a First in Film and Media Production. I’ve been writing my blog Awareness for over two years and it has been truly rewarding for me. I write about the things many people fear talking about – our wonderfully complex minds. I wish to encourage anyone suffering through university and offer them a helping hand. Happy reading.

Mental Health over Christmas: Emily

As part of our Christmas blogging series, Emily Maybanks talks about the things she likes to do to relax and keep herself emotionally healthy during the Winter months.

- Emily Maybanks

1. What do you enjoy most about the winter holiday period?

I particularly enjoy writing Christmas cards for my friends and wrapping Christmas presents. I also love going home to spend time with my family and having cuddles with my cat, Marmite. There is a lot of good television at Christmastime, and I love curling up in front of the TV to watch the Christmas episode of EastEnders, or Call The Midwife, whilst reading a good book or doing some writing. 

2. What do you find most difficult during the holidays?

I always find it difficult to cope with my mental health during the winter, especially since my Dad passed away in 2012. Celebrating Christmas has felt slightly weird ever since. In the winter, I tend to find myself feeling more emotional, tearful, exhausted, and lethargic, as well as being less able to cope with University work and becoming physically ill with colds much more easily. 

3. Taking some time out from all the festivities to look after yourself can be really helpful. What do you do to help your mental health during the holidays?

I really love to write and I find it therapeutic, so I try to do as much writing as possible, as well as making sure that I meet up with friends while I’m home for Christmas. This year, I think I’ll be even more fortunate that Ill have the distraction of creating content for my University’s newspaper, for which I am both the Deputy Editor and Creative Writing Section Editor.

4. What present would you give yourself over the holidays?

Over the holidays, I think I would give myself some time to myself to really relax. Especially because I am in my final year of University and it has been a little intense and stressful at times during this semester. 

5. Anything advice for other students?

Christmas can be a really difficult time for many students for a wide range of reasons and that’s okay; make sure to give yourself a break, it can be more helpful to you in the long run.


If you would like to get involved in our Christmas blogging series, you can find all of the details here.

My name is Emily (Em). I am currently in my final year studying Modern Languages, Translation & Interpreting at Swansea University, where I'm also the Creative Writing Section Editor and Deputy Editor for The Waterfront - Swansea's student newspaper. I wanted to write for Student Minds because I have experienced depression and anxiety as well as other health issues, and I support friends who have also experienced mental health difficulties. I am also a passionate writer and writing has been important in my mental health experiences - both in helping me to cope with my mental health, as well as sharing my story in order to help others.

Mental Health over Christmas: Michael

Christmas can be a tough time of year when struggling with a mental illness, notably the pressure to 'happy'. Michael talks about how he looks after his mental health during the christmas holiday period.

- Michael

1. What do you enjoy most about the winter holiday period?

Everyone tends to come home for Christmas so I love catching up with friends and family that I don’t see that much during the year. I also enjoy the bit between Christmas and New Year where it is pretty much universally acceptable not to do much uni work, no matter how many assignments or exams you have to go back to in the new term.

2. What do you find most difficult during the holidays?

I think one of the most difficult things I find about Christmas (as ridiculous as it sounds), is the relentless pressure to HAVE LOTS OF FUN AND BE REALLY HAPPY!!! Everywhere you go, there is an expectation to celebrate Christmas and New Year in a certain way, all with lots of people. It is easy to feel very lonely and inadequate if you can’t live up to this, especially once exposed to all the photos, videos and programmes on social media of people being endlessly happy and seeming to have lots of fun together. If you are finding things quite difficult, this can also make it awkward to reach out for help and support. It can feel like there is no one to talk to, that everyone is too busy or that you will only drag them down. Uni friends might be miles away and most specialist support services are unavailable from home or closed over Christmas.

3. Taking some time out from all the festivities to look after yourself can be really helpful. What do you do to help your mental health during the holidays?

The winter holidays can be a pretty difficult time for students because there is often a lot of uni work (or paid work) to do before you go back. It can be difficult to balance everything and look after yourself at the same time. I find it really important to find time by myself, away from the family, for something other than work (even just listening to music works for me). Having said this, of course spend time with friends and family and talk to people about how you are feeling; Samaritans run a text or email service over Christmas. And I always try to make sure that even though my daily routine is a bit different over the holidays, I still get plenty of sleep and exercise.

4. What present would you give yourself over the holidays?

That I can’t really answer this question perhaps suggests that the present I really need to give myself is greater self-awareness of how to look after myself.

5. To conclude:

The winter holidays can, from my own experience, be a trigger point and a particularly difficult time if you are feeling depressed or alone. Please try to keep an eye out for the signs that someone else might be struggling. Be patient and sensitive if they seem a bit down and try to make yourself available to chat if/when they need it. Even just a smile could be enough to make a big difference.

If you would like to get involved in our Christmas blogging series, you can find all of the details here

"Hi, I'm Michael. I'm currently a prospective PhD student at Durham University and wanted to write for Student Minds about my own experiences of depression, anxiety and university life."

How to: Navigate Uni with a Dissociative Disorder

Recognising mental illness at university can be hard. Especially, as with dissociative disorders, they aren't talked about very often.

-Elise Jackson

University is undoubtedly amazing. However, getting through the first year can be a challenge for many. Moving away from everything that is familiar, meeting a diverse array of completely new people and having to adapt to an entirely new way of learning is not easy, to say the least. For me, the summer before I started university was the hardest of my life. I lost a lot. My mum had moved half way across the country, my family sold the only home I’d ever known and my friends, destined for universities up and down the country, had to say goodbye. This summer of loss was made only more difficult, by a previous, truly world shattering, loss that occurred during my A-level exams. Four days before my 18th birthday, I lost my big brother to SUDEP (Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy). It was one week before his 22nd birthday. We came to terms with it somehow but grieving whilst simultaneously moving house, sitting A-level exams and leaving home for the first time to embark on my new student life, unsurprisingly, proved difficult. 

I struggled. Within two days of being at university, my parents had phoned the university to help me get some support. I was in the counseling service before the end of Freshers. The counselors were brilliant, very understanding, informed, and acted immediately. Thankfully, when I had settled in, things got better fast. My entire block of fellow first years was super sociable. We spent a lot of time living as one huge flat. I was also lucky enough to have one of my best friends from home living two blocks down. Between my block and his flat, housing for second year was sorted by mid-November. Things were going well so I stopped going to counseling. 

But.

 The thing about mental health is that it can fluctuate, it's somewhat unpredictable. Around February time I had to return my mum's new home in Norfolk for a few days because I felt... wrong. At the time, I thought it was exhaustion and decided a few days at home would solve it. And it did, for a little while. These short periods of what I can only describe as fogginess came to every couple of months but always passed within a week or so. Exams came and went and summer returned. 

During summer, I’m often between places. I usually choose to spend most of the holiday period in Sussex as it is where the majority of my friends are. It also means I can be close to my dad’s family. Reflecting on that first summer of University, I think I must have felt it coming to some extent but not really acknowledged it. I went to stay in Norfolk and something hit me like a tidal wave. This time, I was forced to realize that something was going on in my brain that couldn’t be simply solved by a week at home. I lived for a month feeling like I wasn’t in my own body. I felt I was watching life through a hazy screen. Eventually, I found out that I was suffering from DPD (depersonalization disorder), triggered by depression. 

When I returned to uni, I found out about Student Minds and began volunteering for them. I decided I needed to take control of my own brain. My mental health still fluctuates a lot. I’ll often be feeling fine and then become unwell for a few months. Learning how to deal with this has been the biggest challenge of my second year. Dissociative disorders are not often talked about nor are they well researched. During a relapse, I feel drunk all the time or like a robot who can’t feel anything under the surface. Knowing that there are ways to reconnect with your body is the most important thing. I practice mindfulness, meditation and yoga to stay connected to my body and remain grounded. I intend to return to counseling. But as always, more needs to be done, but I remain optimistic that it will.

Hello! I'm Elise. I'm currently in my final year studying English Language and Literature at the University of Nottingham. My writings for Student Minds will range from pieces about depression and DPD to coping with loss, bereavement and change during your studies - all the while remaining mindful and getting the most out of university life. Thanks for reading!